A Happy Halloween
by fizzingweaselbee
Summary: A (mostly) angst-free Halloween!Jily oneshot: It was just a kiss, friends kiss all the time.


_**AN: This hasn't been beta-ed, so let me know if I've missed any glaringly obvious mistakes.**_

* * *

"Oi, James!" Lily shouted after the Quidditch Captain, skipping every third step in order to catch up with him. "You've been ignoring me," James sighed, not slowing his pace and not looking at her. "It was just a kiss, James, friends kiss all the time." Lily knew she'd said the wrong thing when he turned to glare at her, unreadable emotions in his eyes.

"Just a kiss to you, but you weren't the one who…" he trailed off, if possible speeding up so that Lily had to half jog to keep up with him.

She grabbed onto the sleeve of his Quidditch robes to slow him down. "Who what?"

"Let me put it this way, Evans," James ignored Lily's confused look at the sharp use of her surname. "You've liked this person for ages, absolutely bloody ages. But you were a prat, and they told you so, and you asked them out _once_ but at the complete wrong time," He took a deep breath. "You got over it, you had to. And then, a year later, you two are friends. And then she bloody kisses you, and every thought you'd had for the past six years comes back in a flurry and it fucking **_hurts_**." James takes a shuddering breath, refusing to look at Lily's wide eyes and slightly open mouth. "Everything was much better before, Evans, so spare me the 'friends' talk, alright? At least wait until I'm off my head tonight."

This time, when James walked away, Lily stayed, and as thankful as James was for it, it still hurt.

* * *

"Prongs, you've got to set up the hall." Remus insisted, taking the bottle of Firewhiskey off of him. "James. JAMES CHARLUS POTTER, LILY WILL KILL YOU IF YOU DON'T GO." Remus rarely lost his temper, so the sound of his raised voice got through James' drunken haze.

He shook his head. "Reckon she'd rather I weren't there, t'be honest. I may have ruined ev'rything." Remus sent a silent plea in Sirius' direction, who had so far done nothing but supply the alcohol and try not to laugh. Sirius waved his wand, summoning the Sobering Potion and tossing it to Remus, who unstoppered it.

"Drink this, take a shower, apologise for being late, and do your job." Remus instructed, and James begrudgingly did so, downing the potion in one and standing, slightly wobbly on his feet, and staggering over to the bathroom.

Peter flinched at the thump, crash, and torrent of swearing that followed, but Remus merely shook his head at a laughing Sirius, fixing James' bedhangings from where he'd torn them down earlier.

"If we all weren't too big for the invisibility cloak, I'd say we should go down and watch this, because I think it'll be a night to remember." Sirius said, and Peter smiled, the smallest of the four summoned the bottle of Firewhiskey from Remus' hand, taking a swig of it.

"Rather him than me, mate." He replied solemnly.

* * *

Lily had expected him to be angry, maybe to refuse to work well with her. But she hadn't anticipated his not showing up. Flitwick and Hagrid had finished their jobs; it was down to the Head Boy and Girl to arrange the pumpkins, go over the food one last time, and add any other touches they liked.

Sighing, Lily stood from where she'd been sat on Ravenclaw's table, holding up her wand to move the pumpkins around.

"Careful, Evans, anyone could see up your skirt," Lily hid her initial relief under exasperation shaking her head at the damp Head Boy. "Just looking out for you," James stepped up onto the table a few feet down from where she was, shoving his hands into his pockets. "Sorry about earlier, I got a bit heavy." He said, scuffing his shoe on the mahogany and not looking at her.

Lily bit her lip. "You don't have to apologise, James, I didn't think about anything when I… when I kissed you, and I'm sorry."

James smiled crookedly at her, hazel eyes lit up with amusement at something Lily felt she'd missed. "Well, seeing as I was late, we should probably get started."

Lily nodded, and James took a few steps back, taking a running leap from the Ravenclaw table to the Gryffindor, and then another onto the Slytherin.

"I'll get this half, yeah?" He asked, a grin on his face, and Lily tilted her head.

"I don't know if I should trust you near the Slytherin table, you haven't got the best track record." She called back, and James laughed.

He put his wand hand across his chest, face solemn. "I swear on my honour as a Marauder, I won't do anything bad to the Slytherin's table."

Lily smiled. "Fine, go wild." They both knew that he had left several loopholes in his promise, but neither said anything, and Lily flicked her wand at the radio Flitwick had left her, starting her work happily as the sound of Hulking Hippogriffs filled the hall.

* * *

"Your half is looking decidedly boring, Lily." James commented from where he sat on the Staff table, watching as she danced along the Hufflepuff table with a look of intense concentration on her face that seemed at war with her carefree movements.

Lily turned and stuck her tongue out at him, and James thanked Merlin for the distance between them, because had he been closer, he might've kissed her again.

Lily turned back to look at her handiwork. "Mine will look much better than yours tonight, trust me."

James looked at his side, which he had covering in rather convincing blood stains, chains, and what looked like a thick black coat but was in fact a lethifold he'd enchanted to 'attack' students if they used any of the trigger words. He turned to look at hers, which was merely covered in cobwebs, and raised a challenging eyebrow.

"We'll see about that, Lily, we shall see about that." With one last flick of her wand, Lily announced herself finished, and she walked along the table until she reached the end closest to where James sat, taking a few steps back.

James only realised what she was attempting as she took her first step, and he quickly slid along the table to where she was aiming for, having the intention of catching her if she looked like she wouldn't make it.

But Lily soared from the edge of the Hufflepuff table, crashing into James where he sat, and the pair landed in a rather inelegant heap, half on the table and half on the bench behind it.

Lily pulled her head up from where James had held it against his chest to protect her from the jolt, looking down at James, whose eyes were shut. "Are you okay?" She asked, adjusting his crooked glasses. He groaned in response, and Lily moved her hand to the back of his head worriedly, relieved when she felt no blood.

She felt a humming against her chest, and realised that James was quietly singing along to the song that was still playing.

"You sure know how to knock a guy off of his feet," He said when the song finished, opening his eyes to find Lily closer than he'd thought. "You might want to work on the more metaphorical side of it, though."

He winced as he sat up, back cracking audibly.

"People are going to be here soon, we should probably look like we've been working." Lily said, removing her hand from the back of James' head.

James studied her for a second. "If my side garners more screams, you have to dress up for the entirety of next week." He said, holding out his hand.

Lily shook his hand warily. "If I win, I get to kiss you again," the words popped out her mouth before she could rein them in, and the look of surprise on James' face was made worse only by the opening of the doors.

"You two look like you've been working hard," Dumbledore's eyes twinkled as he looked over the hall, noting James' handiwork with a smile, and Lily's with interest. "But as much as you've done, you are still, alas, only mere students."

"Yes sir." Lily said quietly, quickly climbing off of the staff table. James followed in suit a second later, and the pair sat at their usual spot on Gryffindor table, glad when their friends filed in.

Dumbledore's speech was briefer than usual, and Lily looked at James before taking her wand out of her pocket and twirling it, whispering a word into her Shepherd's Pie.

"What was that, Lily?" Marlene asked, and Lily shrugged.

She caught James' eye. "Me winning." James looked over her shoulder and a grin pulled at his lips until he laughed. The Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws, however, were making a different noise entirely. Screams filled the hall as giant spiders crawled out from the cobwebs, skittering down the walls and onto the tables before exploding in a mess of orange sparks, leaving behind chocolate in their place.

"You winning." James agreed, and Lily grabbed hold of his tie and kissed him across the table. There was none of the hurt in this kiss, only anticipation, and Lily smiled against James' lips before pulling away.

Silence fell over their group, and they heard someone from the Slytherin table comment, none too quietly.

"Potter's lowered himself to kissing that Mudblood, and I thought he could-" the words were abruptly cut off by a muffled shout, and James smirked, looking down at his plate and listening to Sirius cheer.

He received a detention for the spell, and McGonagall thoroughly told him off, but James couldn't bring himself to care as they extracted Narcissa from the cloak, his hand squeezing Lily's as she tried to look disappointed.

"You said you wouldn't do anything." She muttered across the table.

James smirked. "To the table." That earned him a half-hearted kick under the table, but Lily kept hold of his hand as they ate, leaving their confused friends with a cheery wave as they disappeared out of the Hall and up the stairs.


End file.
